David Weprin - Career

Career

In 1983, then Governor Mario Cuomo named Weprin the Deputy Superintendent of Banks and Secretary of the Banking Board for New York State, a position responsible for regulating more than 3,000 financial institutions and financial service firms in New York State.

After leaving the Banking Board, Weprin held a variety of leadership positions at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette; Kidder Peabody; Paine Webber, Inc. and Advest, Inc. While in the private sector, he was elected to serve as Chairman of the Securities Industry Association for the New York District for three years.

In 2001, Weprin was elected to the New York City Council, where he served until 2009. Shortly after taking office, he was selected as Chairman of the Council’s Finance Committee. During his time as a Council Member, Weprin led the charge in the Council against Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan, which he characterized as “an unfair tax” with “the potential for causing hardship to people who rely on their cars in boroughs other than Manhattan”.

In 2009, Weprin retired from the City Council to run for New York City Comptroller. He finished last in the Democratic primary, behind Melinda Katz, David Yassky and the eventual nominee and winner of the general election, John Liu.

On February 9, 2010, Weprin won a special election to represent New York State Assembly's District 24. He won the general election the following November with 67 percent of the vote.

Special election 2011

Weprin was selected by the local leaders of the Democratic Party to run for the New York's 9th congressional district special election to the House of Representatives held on September 13, 2011, to replace Democrat Anthony Weiner, who had resigned in June 2011 following a sexting scandal. The district in which registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by three to one may be eliminated in the 2012 redistricting, and Weprin, who lives a few blocks outside of the district, was chosen largely because he promised not to challenge another incumbent in 2012, should his seat be eliminated. The seat was initially considered safe for Democrats, but Weprin lost against Republican opponent Bob Turner, a retired cable television executive, with 47 percent against Turner's 53 percent, after a campaign plagued by gaffes.

Turner, a Roman Catholic, was appealing to Jewish voters, who make up for about a third of the voters in the district, by criticizing President Obama’s policies on Israel, and portraying Weprin, who is strongly pro-Israel, as being insufficiently critical of Obama’s stance on Israel. Former New York mayor Ed Koch, a Democrat and Jew, supported Turner in order to send a message to President Obama to change what Koch describes as “hostile position on the State of Israel”. Turner was also supported by Assemblyman Dov Hikind, a Democrat and an orthodox Jew, and local rabbis, who objected to Weprin's support for same-sex marriage.